


Silk Noir

by sinnerman



Category: Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2 - Fandom
Genre: AU, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2011-06-19
Updated: 2011-06-19
Packaged: 2017-10-20 13:35:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/213324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sinnerman/pseuds/sinnerman
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometime after the second Great War, Chicago PD's best Detective, Kaidan Alenko, has to unravel a murder and prevent a possible gangland war, all while trying to keep nightclub owner Nora Shepard out of prison so they can get back to work on their crazy relationship.  This would be a lot easier if only Shepard's nightclub, the Normandy, wasn't the center of an international opium smuggling ring.  But still, if anyone can save her while staying on the good side of the law, it would be Alenko.  He can only hope that she'll show her gratitude appropriately.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Set-Up

"This is a real mess, Alenko."  Pressly looked around the gore-splattered room.  "If that girl of yours is involved with this – "

"She's not my girl," Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko, Chicago PD interrupted his fellow detective.  "Shepard isn't anybody's girl."

"Right," grunted Pressly.  "But she is your problem.  And if her damn gang is mixed up with this…."  Pressly didn't bother finishing the sentence.

Kaidan walked out of the room, leaving the two dead men to be cleaned up.  If Shepard was involved with this, she'd get the chair.  Two dead foreigners.  Stiffs the State Department were interested in.  This was big.  This was bad.

"What's the scoop?" grinned Jeff 'Joker' Moreau, as Kaidan stepped out of the dingy hotel where the two men had been shot.  "I know it's a homicide, or your ass wouldn't be here."  Moreau was a reporter for the Daily Star, and as much a thorn in Kaidan's side as he was a useful tool.  Joker knew something about everybody.

Kaidan checked that there were no other reporters hovering at the door, and let Joker join him as he walked past the tape barrier on his way back to his car.  Kaidan considered, then decided to go with the truth.  "Double homicide.  Out of towners."  Well, part of the truth, anyway.

"Shepard's work?" asked Joker eagerly.  "More gangland killings?"

"Gangsters, yes.  Not her style," grunted Kaidan.  "Pressly thinks it is."

"Then it isn't.  'Double murder mystery stumps cops!'  Pressly wouldn't know a killer if one sauntered into his office with the murder weapon in hand."

Kaidan laughed to himself, remembering that on at least two occasions, Nora Shepard had done exactly that.

"So, what's your next step?  Are you gonna go talk to Shepard?"

Kaidan sighed.  "You just wanna put your eyes on Shepard's secretary again."

"Of course I do," grinned Joker.  "If I thought I could get away with putting anything else on her, I'd do that too.  Lemme give you a ride.  My car's a lot smoother than your PD clunker."

"Why not."  Kaidan followed Joker to his car, a sleek custom car from some Italian factory.  "Why don't you buy American like a decent person, Moreau?"

"You think I paid for this?" laughed Joker.  "I got it in return for a little creative editing."

"Journalistic integrity?  Ever heard of it?"

"Eating.  Or in this case, having a nice car.  I call her Edie."

"What kind of idiot names a car?" grumbled Kaidan, and Joker drove away.  He took LaSalle down to the Normandy, Shepard's nightclub.  Right in the heart of downtown, where the city fathers could raise the loudest stink about the decline of morals, but slink out in time to make it home for supper with their boring wives.  "Aren't you going to call your paper?"

Joker laughed.  "Please, I got more dirt out of those stupid beat cops then I ever get from you.  I already got the front page for tomorrow.  I'm gonna stick with you and make sure I see this whole thing wrapped up."

Kaidan glared at Joker.  "How many times to I have to tell you not to bribe my men?"

"When the city decides to pay your flatfoots a decent salary, my bribes won't work.  Until then, you gotta learn to play the game, Alenko."  Joker pulled up in front of the Normandy, and a valet rushed up to take the keys.  "Scratch or dent my car, and I'll ruin your life," snapped Joker.

"I won't hurt your car, Mr. Moreau," said the young man earnestly.  "Honest!"

Kaidan got out of the car, and pushed his hat back a little away from his brow.  Shepard's nightclub always put him on the road to a headache.  It was always too bright and too loud, even when it was closed.  He walked inside, without waiting for Joker, and ignored the maitre d' who tried to stop him from walking upstairs, past the privacy sign.

With a grin, Joker followed him upstairs, making his best innocent face.  "You sure know how to get attention, Alenko."

"Mr. Moreau.  Lieutenant Alenko," Miss Lawson, Shepard's perfectly efficient and perfectly shaped secretary, rose from her desk to greet them.  Tonight, Miranda Lawson was wearing a shimmering silver gown that clung to her distractingly perfect curves.  "Miss Shepard is busy, but," Miranda smiled at Kaidan, "I believe she has time to talk to you.  Go right in."

Kaidan nodded, and walked into Shepard's private office.  Joker tried to follow, but Miranda gently pulled him away, and led him to a couch.

"Would you like a drink, Mr. Moreau?"  Miranda sat Joker down before she walked over to the bar, and turned away to start mixing a drink.  Joker let his eyes roam over her shapely form.  "Rye and ginger, if I recall correctly?"

Kaidan laughed to himself, and closed the door behind him, locking it so that he would be able to talk to Shepard without being interrupted.

"Well, Alenko," smiled Nora Shepard.  Her husky voice went right to the bad parts of Kaidan's brain, and his eyes weren't any help.  She was perched on her desk, in a long black evening gown with a slit up the side that Kaidan knew was there for practicality rather than fashion.  Nora was left-handed, and always had her dresses cut that way so she could reach her gun.  The dress didn't leave much to the imagination otherwise.  A deep plunging curve accentuated what everyone already knew: Nora Shepard, Chicago's most dangerous gangster, was a woman.  "You gonna talk anytime soon?  Or just stare?"

Kaidan smiled.  "Figure I might as well get an eyeful now, before it's too late."

Nora pulled out a cigarette from the case on her desk.  Unlike most women, she didn't bother with a holder.  "What is it this time?  More moral turpitude?  Or a real crime?"

"Murder.  A foreigner."  He lit her cigarette, taking his time, just the way she liked it.  Nora hated high flame by her face.  She preferred a slow burn.

"And what makes you think I had anything to do with it?"  She blew a smoke ring, politely aiming it away from Kaidan's face.  Or possibly, she was showing off the curve of her long, beautiful neck, because she knew he liked it.

"I don't," said Kaidan shortly.  "But Pressly does."

Nora laughed, dark and slow.  "That man is an idiot.  I've been here all night.  Why can't he ever pin a crime on someone else?"  She looked at Kaidan, meeting his dark eyes for the first time that evening.  "You gonna take me in, Alenko?"

"If I had my way, I'd be taking you right here, Shepard."

Nora gave a low, sultry laugh, and took a deep drag on her cigarette.  "You know I'll go anywhere you're going, Alenko, so long as you're in front."

"Don't you ever get tired of that view?"

Nora shook her head slowly.  "Why don't they make more men like you, Alenko?"

"Same reason they don't make more women like you, Shepard."

"You're not going to stay over tonight, are you?"

Kaidan shook his head, slowly.  "You're a suspect, again.  Lemme hear your alibi."

"What do you want to hear?"  Nora finished her cigarette, and ground it out in the jade ashtray that decorated her desk, taking out her frustration on the paper and packed tobacco.

"Where were you tonight?"

"Here, of course.  Came in at six, talked to Gardner about the menu.  Checked in at the bar, listened to Samara's first song, then came upstairs with Miranda to get some work done.  Got interrupted by my on-again, off-again man stopping by to accuse me of murder."  Nora pulled out another cigarette.  "Again."

"Who saw you come in?"

"Rex."

"Where were you before six?"  Kaidan lit her cigarette again, watching her beautiful green eyes.  He knew she was telling the truth.  Now he would have to prove it.

"I stopped at the carnival."  She laughed at the look on his face, a dark trill of genuine laughter.  "No lie.  The carnies have a bunch of beautiful women and I was trying to get some of them to sign on with the Normandy."  She took a slow drag on her cigarette.  "One of them is related to Samara.  A beautiful girl, name of Liara.  She's not your type, though.  Clingy."  Nora put down her cigarette for a moment, so that she could fix her chignon, and entirely incidentally, show off her magnificent curves.  She tucked away a few stray hairs, then picked up her cigarette again.

"Did you go alone?"

Nora shook her head.  "I thought I would need Samara to do the talking, but the little beauty speaks perfect English.  Says she's always dreamed of singing in a real nightclub.  She's a hell of a looker, Alenko.  I'm going to need another bouncer just to keep the dogs off her."

Kaidan brushed off her comments about this new girl.  He didn't like women, just one.  This one.  He knew she was poison, and that his chances of retiring to a little house with a white picket fence and Nora at his side were so small that not even the stupidest bookie would lay odds on it.  But that didn't change the fact that Nora was all the woman he needed.  "Who drove?"

"Taylor."  Nora smiled wryly at him.  "You're pretty wound up about this, Alenko.  What's wrong?"

"The two were shot dead with a .455.  Messy.  Five shots.  And it happened before six."

"No wonder Pressly thinks it's me," she grinned.  There weren't many people in the city that used such a heavy caliber sidearm.  "But there were only two of them.  That's three shots too many."

"I know," Kaidan agreed.  "You haven't bought a new gun recently, have you?"

"No," Nora sighed.  "The one I want isn't in the catalog anymore.  I'm going to have to special order them from now on."

"Still using the Webley-Fosbery Automatic?"

"Still the most reliable weapon they make."  Nora smiled.  "Unless you count a certain Lieutenant."

Kaidan shook his head.  "Let me know when you want to give up the nightclub.  Then we can talk about you counting on me."

"What's wrong with retiring to Cuba and living like kings?"

"I like to be among my own people."

"You're a mutt, Alenko.  You don't have people.  Fine.  We can go to New York.  It's like Cuba, but there aren't as many Cubans there."

Kaidan laughed.  "How about I keep you from getting run in on a murder charge first?  The stiffs were foreigners.  Dark ones, with bad teeth."

Nora shrugged.  "Doesn't ring a bell."

"Two courier briefcases filled with dope."

"Okay, that sounds familiar."  Nora pushed herself off the desk, and walked over to the door.  "Lawson.  I need the delivery lists."

"One moment, Miss Shepard."  Miranda got up from the couch where she had been distracting Joker, and bent over her desk to find the right ledger.  "Here you are."  She handed over the book.  "Are you looking for anything specific?"

"Did any of our deliveries go astray recently?"  Nora flipped through the ledger, checking her most recent business transactions.

"No," said Miranda in confusion.  "Everything has been smooth as silk for the last month.  Ever since we dealt with –" she looked up at Kaidan, and coughed delicately.  "We haven't had any problems lately."

Nora paused on one of the last pages in the ledger.  "Dark?  Like what, Italy dark?"

"Constantinople, more like."  Kaidan looked at her.  "You got anything going with some Greeks?"

Nora shrugged, and she and Miranda both put their best innocent expressions on.  "Nothing special."  Nora snapped the ledger closed.  "So, do your holey friends have names?  Or do you have them lying out at the morgue as John and Jack Doe?"

"Dovious," grinned Joker, "in deference to their origin."

"You heard nothing," snapped Kaidan.  "Print one word of this, and I'll lock you up overnight with the last crop of bookies we busted."

Joker paled at the idea of being locked up with a group of men who owed their ruin to his pen.  "At least they're not violent.  Are they violent?  You wouldn't do that, would you, Alenko?"

Miranda laughed and gently ruffled Joker's hair.  "Aww, poor baby.  Don't worry, Miss Shepard won't let the mean man lock you up."

"Yeah, she'll just lock you up herself," Kaidan pointed out.

"So, I'd be trapped in the Normandy with Shepard's pack of beautiful women?"  Joker grinned up at Kaidan.  "Where do I sign up?"

Kaidan rolled his eyes, and Nora laughed.  "Put a coat on, Shepard.  Let's go visit the morgue.  Maybe you can help shed some light on our newly departed."

Nora sighed, and let Miranda hand her a fur wrap from the office closet.

"I'll have Taylor bring the car around, Miss Shepard."

"Oh, well," grinned Joker, "Looks like I'm not driving anymore.  Say, can I call my office from here?"

Miranda met Nora's eyes, then smiled seductively at Joker.  "Of course, you can use my desk."  She took Joker's arm and led him away.

Kaidan glanced down at Nora's desk.  The black ledger was gone.  He helped Nora with her furs, and watched her put an expensive twist of lace on her head.  "Is that thing supposed to be a hat?"

Nora smiled.  "This little frou-frou cost me more than your boys make in a year."

"Why does everybody keep harping on our salaries?  We make enough to be decent."

Nora burst into laughter as she followed Kaidan down the stairs.  "Sweetie, who wants to be decent?  Besides you."

Kaidan sighed.  "Let's just get going, Shepard.  I don't feel like dealing with your morals today."

"I don’t have morals."

"And that's why I don't deal with them."

Kaidan ignored the curious glances of the crowd and the staff, as he walked out of the club.  Shepard's car, a large limousine of solid American steel, was waiting for them at the door.  Her driver was Jacob Taylor, a large and handsome black man with the build of a boxer and the brains of a businessman.  A crooked businessman.  Taylor held the door open for him, but Kaidan just pointed at the wheel, and took Nora's hand so that he could help her in.

Taylor grinned.  "You're a damn jealous man for someone who hasn't even sprung for a ring, Alenko."

"County Morgue," snapped Kaidan as he climbed in next to Nora and closed the door.  "I hate everyone on your staff."

Nora smiled at him.  "Well, they all love you."

Kaidan looked at her in surprise.  "Why would they care?"

"Because I told them to."  She pulled out a bottle of white wine from the cooler.  "Thirsty?"

"Is there water in there?"

"You're getting old, Alenko."  She found a bottle of mineral water, and poured him a glass while the powerful engine sped through the city night.  "Or are you trying to keep your head clear?"

"I'm already too close to you for comfort, Shepard," grumbled Kaidan as he drank his water.  "I'm not going to risk it."

Nora smiled at the carefully avoided compliment.  "I'd like to think I'm worth the risk."

"I'm not ready to cash in my chips yet.  Not all of them, anyway.  I'm in it for bigger stakes, Shepard.  Not pin money."

"Part of me hates it when you talk like that," Nora purred.  "I know what I want, and I want it now.  But the other part – the other part – "  She met his eyes, drinking in the hungry, demanding look in his eyes.

The car stopped before she could finish her sentence.  "We're here, Miss Shepard."

"You're going to finish that sentence someday," said Kaidan softly, and Nora nodded slowly, still unable to speak.

Taylor opened the door, and they walked into the morgue in familiar, companionable silence.


	2. The Stiffs

Nora pulled her wrap a little closer around her shoulders.  "I hate morgues.  They're always too cold."

"You're never happy unless there's a fire roaring in every room.  Come on, the stiffs are still being checked in."

"Why?  That's a little slow, isn't it?" Nora asked as she followed Kaidan down the stairs.

"Probably the fault of the Feds.  They always muck things up."

"Feds?" said Nora sharply.  "You didn't mention Uncle Sam had his nose in this."

"Who's this?" asked a fresh-faced young man as they entered the examining room.  He was clean-cut, and wore a plain, non-descript suit that practically screamed 'G-Man.'

"Mr. Jenkins, Miss Williams, this is Detective Alenko, Chicago PD.  Mr. Jenkins is from the Bureau and Miss Ashley here is a translator from the State Department."  Pressly introduced Kaidan to the people from the government.  "And this is Miss Nora Shepard," Pressly added, without any other introduction.

Nora watched the G-Man look distastefully at Kaidan's obviously mixed color and then at her evening gown.  "A pleasure to meet you, Mr. Jenkins," she said coldly, and shook his hand, then carefully wiped her hand on her overpriced handkerchief, making sure that he saw it.  She smiled more easily at the translator, a sturdy-looking, no-nonsense kind of woman in sensible shoes.  Nora noted a carefully concealed pistol under her jacket as they shook hands.  "What did they drag you out here for, sister?"

Ashley shook her hand with a friendly smile, but didn't answer her question.  "I like that dress!  Did you come here right from a dance or something?"

"Miss Shepard owns a nightclub," Pressly explained before Nora could.

"Oh, nice," Ashley smiled.  "That must be fun."

Jenkins frowned at the friendly banter.  "Did you come here for a reason, Miss Shepard?"

"I thought she might be able to identify the bodies."

"That's not necessary," said Jenkins coldly.  "We know all we need to know about them.  Lock up the morgue.  I don't want anyone else touching the bodies."

Behind him, Ashley tried not to let her irritation show, and Nora held back a smile.  The eyes of the two women met, and Nora knew that Ashley had hoped that Nora would have given something away while looking at the bodies.  Ashley shrugged, and let Jenkins bully his way through the investigation.

"What kind of name is Alenko, anyway?  Sounds foreign," said Jenkins suspiciously.

Ashley glared at him as if she wanted to slap him, and Pressly coughed nervously.

"Sort of," said Kaidan mildly.  "My father is an Iroquois, but I find it easier to go by 'Alenko' than something like 'Goes bravely sunward.'  Fits better on my license, too."  He kept his face even, and tried to ignore Nora's stifled giggles at the way Jenkins nearly jumped back into Ashley.

"At any rate, we should get out of here and let the doctors do their thing," said Pressly quickly.  "Shall we?"

Ashley rolled her eyes.  "Come on, Jenkins, we can take Miss Shepard back to the station and ask her a few questions.  Just to clear stuff up."

"Right, sure."  Jenkins straightened his government-issue tie, and stomped back up the stairs.  "This way, Miss Shepard."  Jenkins started to leave through the receiving dock, when he noticed that Nora wasn't following.  "Miss Shepard?  If you please?"

"You got a warrant, buddy?" drawled Nora slowly.

"What?  We just want to ask you a few questions, Miss Shepard.  I'm sure you want to co-operate," said Jenkins menacingly.

"I hate those little cars you coppers use," said Nora, airily.  "Too crowded.  I'll take my own car, and meet you at the station."  Nora started to walk away again, but Jenkins turned and followed her.

"I wouldn't want you to get lost on the way," he said firmly.  "I'll go with you."

Nora blinked in innocent surprise.  "With me?  Oh, but there isn't room!"  She turned her back on Jenkins again, and walked out to her car.  Taylor opened the door for her, and she slid smoothly into the car.  "To the station.  Alenko?  You coming?" Nora smiled before Taylor closed the door.

"I'll meet you there," said Kaidan calmly.  "Don't take too long."

Nora made her second-best innocent face.  "Oh, but you'd come find me, wouldn't you?  I think I'd like that."  She nodded to Taylor, and he closed the door.

Kaidan blocked Jenkins, and Ashley pulled on her partner's sleeve.

"Could you stop being a dolt for like, five minutes?" she hissed.  "Calm down, she lives here.  She's not gonna run."

Jenkins brushed Ashley away and watched Nora's long, powerful limousine pull away.  "I hope you're not making a mistake, Williams.  She knows something!"

"Of course she does, you idiot.  If you hadn't shot your mouth off, we could have found out what it was!"

"I know what I'm doing," grumbled Jenkins.  "I don't need a woman's advice."

"Who did you piss off?" Kaidan asked Ashley.  "I can't figure how you got stuck babysitting Junior G-Man here."

"What?" Jenkins tried to roar, but he really wasn't old or grizzled enough.

"Shut it, Hoover's little helper.  Daddy's got work to do," Kaidan snapped.  "I don't have time to play with second-stringers."  Kaidan turned to Pressly.  "Lemme see the sheets on those two stiffs."

"This will be fun," sighed Ashley.  "Come on, Jenkins, let's get to the station so you can have your chat with Miss Shepard."  She walked back to the car, leaving him to decide whether or not he wanted to keep fighting with Kaidan.

With an angry snarl, Jenkins walked away to follow Ashley.  "Don't think I'll forget this," he muttered as he stormed past Kaidan.

"Did they run out of real G-men?" Kaidan asked Pressly.  "Or did Chicago stop being important while I was sleeping?"

"Shut it, Alenko!"  Pressly handed him the report so far.  "You've already tanked your career once.  You can't afford to do it again."

Kaidan rolled his eyes, and started reading.  Suddenly, there was a loud crash, the shriek of metal slamming into metal.  Kaidan ran to the end of the block, to see a group of masked men dressed in black pulling Shepard, struggling and slightly dazed, from the wreckage of her car.  The rattle of tommy guns told him that he'd been seen, and that his presence was unwanted.  "Shepard!"

Yelling fiercely in a harsh and unfamiliar language, the group of men threw Shepard into a waiting black car, and sped away, firing wildly the entire time.

 

Nora shook herself awake, trying to figure out where she was.  Someone had rammed the limousine, and dragged her out of the wreck.  She tried to brush her hair out of her eyes, but realized that her hands were restrained behind her back.  "Great."  She tugged, and heard the ring of metal against her bracelets.  Cuffs.  She smiled to herself.

"I'm glad you're enjoying this," said a thick, heavily accented voice.  "I'm so glad you could join me, Miss Shepard."

Nora looked around the room.  "This isn't a holding cell."  The lamps were made of brightly colored paper and bits of glass.  Eastern.  There was a low table by the window, and she could see her purse and her gun lying there.  "Where am I?  Who are you?"

"I believe I have the pleasure of addressing Lieutenant Nora Shepard, one of the unsung heroic women of the noble American Marine Corps?"

"That's the United States Marine Corps.  Get it right."  Nora glared at the man who stepped out of the shadows to stand before her.  She couldn't hear anyone else in the room.  "And who might you be?"  He was tall, dark and ugly, with a distinctly Mediterranean cast to his face and murder in his eyes.  Looking at him made her long for a knight in a dark brown fedora, but Nora was pretty sure the princess would have to beat the evil ogre all by herself this time.

"You helped run the hospitals," he said slowly, walking up to her.  "Who am I kidding?  You ran the hospitals, didn't you, Shepard?  You and that old fool, Al-Massani, you somehow kept the opium flowing to the south when it should have been going north."

"The Sheikh?" Nora looked up at him in surprise.  "I was doing my job!  We needed the opium for the hospitals.  We saved lives, and everybody turned a healthy profit in the bargain."

"Not the people on the Spanish Road," he snarled.  "You ruined my plan!"

"Oh, please.  So a bunch of stupid playboys in Spain and England had to dream in black and white for a few years.  The trade is back up, who even cares about – a couple of – oh.  You're Vido Santiago, aren't you?" Nora said, finally realizing that she was face to face with the one man who would care whether a few million dollars' worth of opium flowed north or south.  "Hey, next time you decide to shoot someone and walk away laughing, make sure he's dead first."

"Oh, I will," said Santiago cruelly.  "But first, I'm going to see to it that your business is destroyed.  I'm going to move the route back through the Spanish regions.  Let the Venetians and the Arabs starve.  Al-Massani and his savages will learn what it means to cross me."  Santiago had been pacing back and forth, shouting in his rage as Spaniards will do, and he stopped right in front of Nora.  "And you!"  He grabbed her by the chin, squeezing painfully.  "You will learn your proper place, woman, if I have to beat it into you."

Nora twisted, trying to get away from his grip before he saw what she was doing with her hands.  "Get your hands off me!"

Santiago slapped her across the face and stepped back.  "You ought to be ashamed of yourself, Shepard."

"I ought to be ashamed?" she said, barely able to hold back her rage.  "You hit a lady!"

"You're hardly a lady," Santiago sneered.  "So I'm not going to treat you like one.  I'll give you the same treatment I would give any woman who was no better than she ought to be."

"Not a lady?"  Nora smiled at him.  "Then this won't come as much of a surprise."  She flung the metal cuffs that had been holding her arms behind her right into Santiago's face.  He stumbled backward.  Nora sprang to her feet and threw the chair at Santiago to trip him before he could pull his gun out.

A normal woman would have run for the door and tried to escape at this point.  But a normal woman wouldn't be in control of a multinational, multimillion-dollar business that stretched from China to Chicago, let alone one that was lethally illegal.

Nora hit Santiago in the stomach, knocking all the wind out of him, then kicked him in the side of the head while he was down.  Ladies don't have to fight fair.

Santiago collapsed on the floor by the table, and Nora pulled a small bottle from her purse while he was still stunned.  Santiago tried again to scramble to his feet, but Nora was faster.  She grabbed him by the back of the neck and held the bottle to his nose.  Santiago tried to hold his breath and throw her off, but the human body doesn't work that way.  He finally took a breath, and got a full blast of the drug.

Nora leaned down and checked his pupils.  "I sure hope none of your men hold a grudge against you, like the one you had against the Sheikh."

Santiago sprawled limply on the carpet, breathing slowly and rolling his head back and forth as he tried to fight the soporific influence.  "I'll get you… for this…."

"Have a nice nap, Vido."  Nora closed the bottle and grabbed her purse and her gun before heading to the window to find a way out.  Nora climbed out of the window and made her way down the fire escape, careless of the damage she was doing to her dress.  She looked around quickly, and realized she was on the north side of the city.  She had a friend in the neighborhood – well, Nora had friends in every neighborhood.  She threw off her heels, and started walking to Dr. Chakwas' clinic.


	3. The Freaks

Kaidan walked to the rear of the carnival grounds, where the performers had their caravans.  Ashley was walking next to him.

"I can't believe you decked the poor kid," said Ashley.  She didn't sound very sympathetic.  Kaidan made a non-committal noise, and she continued.  "I'm sure he'll get more sensible as he gets older."

"If he lives that long."

"You didn't have to break his nose, though."

"Not my fault he hit my fist.  He should have a harder head if he wants to play with the big boys.  This way."

Ashley looked at him in surprise.  "I thought you said you've never been here."

"Haven't.  But I'd know Shepard's cigarettes anywhere," explained Kaidan, pointing to the cigarette butts lying on the ground in front of a non-descript black caravan.  Ashley knocked on the door.

The girl that opened the door fully justified Shepard's warning.  She had all the curves that a woman was supposed to have, from her lips to her hips.  Her face had big baby blue eyes set in perfect olive skin, framed by soft waves of long black hair that fell to her waist, and worst of all, an irresistible smattering of freckles across the bridge of her perfect little nose.  She was the perfect mix of miss and minx.  "Hello?" she said sweetly, with just the trace of an alluring accent.  "Can I help you?"

"You're Liara, right?  Shepard came by to talk to you earlier?" asked Kaidan.

Liara nodded quickly, and looked curiously at Ashley.  "She said she would be coming back later, but she's not here, if you're looking for her," she said with angelic innocence.

"She's gone missing," said Kaidan sharply.  Her voice grated on his nerves.  Or possibly some other part that he didn't want her grating on.  "Did she mention anything?"

"Missing?" gasped Liara.  "Oh no!"  She stepped out of the caravan, making her cheap dressing gown flow as elegantly around her as one of Shepard's designer frocks would have.  "What happened?"  Liara brushed past Ashley, and stood right in front of Kaidan, her hands nervously clasped together.  "Please, you have to tell me!"  Her beautiful blue eyes were wide and pleading, but before she could completely short-circuit his brain, Ashley stepped in.

"Easy there, kitten.  We're the ones with the questions.  Good thing I didn't bring the kid," Ashley muttered, "he doesn't have your resistance to womanly wiles."  Kaidan flushed, and moved away as Ashley took Liara by the arm.  "Let's step inside and talk, kitten."

Liara shot a look of appeal at Kaidan, but Ashley forced her back inside the caravan, leaving Kaidan to follow once his brain was back in place.  "Who are you?" Liara demanded almost tearfully.

"My name is Ashley Williams.  I'm with the FBI.  This is Lieutenant Alenko.  He's with the Chicago PD.  We just want to find Miss Shepard."

Liara glanced up at Kaidan again, but he was studiously avoiding her gaze.  The beautiful girl sat down slowly on a wicker chair, carefully arranging herself to look harmless and vulnerable.  "I don’t know what I can tell you," she said softly.  "Shepard came by to talk to me and offered me a job, and paid Fist – he's the owner – to let me out of my contract.  She promised to come back after this last performance to pick me up and take me to my cousin's place."

"Fist?  Why don't I know that name?" muttered Kaidan.  "I thought I knew all the regulars in the carnie racket."

"He is from somewhere in New York," offered Liara helpfully.  "He bought this carnival from Doran, and this is his first year running it.  He wasn't very happy about letting me go, but Shepard's offer was too good to refuse."

"Did Fist have any visitors today?" asked Ashley.

"Oh, I don't know," said Liara sweetly.  "But we could ask Jack, she'll know!"  Liara moved gracefully to the door and stuck her head outside, seeking her friend and showing off her perfect rear end.

"Who's Jack?"  Ashley asked.  "I'm having trouble keeping up with all the characters here."

"This one I know," grinned Kaidan.  "She's the tattooed lady.  'Lady' is a bit of a stretch."

"Jack!  Jack, be a dear and come visit me," called Liara.

Kaidan already knew what to expect, but Ashley turned bright red and looked away as Jack strutted into the tiny room.  Jack was wearing a pair of men's dark blue jeans, a red work shirt with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows, and very little – if anything – underneath, unless you counted the tattoos that started at the neck and covered the rest of her skin all the way down.  Her feet were bare, except for the tattoos, and she was displaying a shocking amount of ankle.

"What?" Jack demanded.  "Coppers?  Liara, what is this?"

"Something's happened to Shepard!" said Liara quickly.  "We're trying to find out where she might be."

Kaidan raised an eyebrow at the 'we,' but didn't interrupt.

"What?  I knew that fucking rat bastard wasn't gonna play fair.  All I know is, some damned Ruskie dropped by to see Fist, and then he went out to see someone.  He's fucking up to something!"

Kaidan took over talking so that Ashley could recover from the barrage of Jack's language.  "Did you happen to catch the Russian's name?  And how did you know he was Russian?" he asked curiously.

Jack grinned.  "When a guy asks for vodka and caviar in an accent so thick you can cut it, what do you think he is?  His name was Vakari-something.  I don't do those tongue twisters."  She grinned wickedly at Ashley.  "I can do these tongue twisters, though," she said, showing off the flexibility of her tongue.  Ashley turned bright red again.

"Any idea where Fist went?"  Kaidan made a mental note to call New York and see why Doran had sold the carnival.

Jack shrugged.  "Dunno.  Oh wait, I wonder… he did say he was gonna talk to Solus about somethin', but I dunno if that's where he went."

"Solus?" said Ashley.  "Okay, who's that?"

"Dr. Solus runs a clinic," Kaidan explained.  "He caters to people with special needs."

Ashley rolled her eyes.  "Right."

"Well, let's go check out the clinic," suggested Kaidan.  "Thank you for your help, ladies."  He held the door for Ashley and they walked back to the car in silence.

"You're not really going to the clinic, are you?" said Ashley as she got into the car.

Kaidan smiled wryly.  "Jack's story was a little too fast.  Let's see if anyone decides to get some air."  He drove away and parked the car out of sight, just beyond the entrance to the carnival.  In a few minutes, a woman walked out and hailed a cab.  Despite the trenchcoat, Kaidan recognized Liara's overly luscious curves. "How interesting.  Shall we follow her?"

"You don't think her painted friend will try something?"

"Her painted friend can't leave the carnival grounds again, or she gets arrested for indecency and sent to a correctional home."  Kaidan pulled out and followed the cab through the streets.  "I have no idea where she is going.  It isn't to the clinic, that's for sure."

"I sure hope she's not leading us into a trap," Ashley muttered as she loaded a small pistol.

"I hope she is," Kaidan countered.  "It will give me something to do."

The cab stopped in front of a run-down three flat, and Liara paid off the driver before walking up the stairs to the top floor.

Ashley kicked off her heels, and pulled on a pair of tennis shoes.

"Where were you hiding those?"

"What do you think I have in this bag?  Makeup?" said Ashley impatiently.  She put her pistol in the pocket of her coat.  "Let's go."

Kaidan shook his head.  "Why don't I ever meet any normal women?"  In her soft-soled shoes, Ashley moved as silently as he did.  They went around the back, and he helped her up the fire escape to an open window.  Kaidan peered inside, and saw Liara pacing in the room, with a tall, dark man leaning against the wall watching her and listening to her rage.  He quickly ducked back beneath the window so he wouldn't be seen.  Ashley crouched beneath the other corner, listening intently.

"I thought I gave orders that Shepard was not to be harmed!" she said sharply, almost yelling, but still alluring.

"You are not the only one who has designs on the beautiful Shepard," said the man simply.  Jack had not lied about his accent.  "There are other players in this game.  Someone made off with her before I could do anything."

Liara made a noise of rage.  "This was all supposed to be so simple!  Get close, get the money, and get out!  Why can't anyone follow a simple plan?"

The man shrugged.  "Shepard is too important not to have any enemies.  You should have cleared the board before you started a new game."

Liara stamped one of her tiny feet.  "Thanks a lot, Garrus!  Why didn't you say that before I came to this miserable country?"

"You didn't ask me," he smiled.  He had remarkably sharp canines.  They looked like fangs.  "So, these politsii – police – is right word?  How can a woman be a police officer?"

"Actually," said Liara, "she's a Federal agent.  That's a little different.  A lot of women did 'men's work' during the war, so that more men would be free to fight on the front lines.  Now that the war is over, most of them went back to their normal lives.  Some of them," she said sourly, "obviously did not.  But what about them?  I sent them to Mordin's place to find Fist's body.  That should keep them busy for a while."

"Yes, but you are certain that they went?" 

Liara didn't answer, and there was silence.  The kind of silence that makes you think.

A lifetime of being targeted for death sharpens a man's reflexes.  Kaidan dodged, moving out of the way just in time before the glittering knife sank into his chest.  Garrus grabbed him and drew back the knife to strike again, but Ashley grabbed the alien's arm and managed to twist the knife away.

Kaidan punched Garrus in the jaw, making the taller man stagger, and all three of them nearly fell off the fire escape.  With a shriek of horror, Liara grabbed Garrus and steadied him long enough for all three to recover their balance.  "Maybe we should all talk inside?" suggested Kaidan.  "Unless you really want to try that death-defying plunge."

Ashley had her pistol out, giving more weight to Kaidan's suggestion, and they carefully climbed through the window.  "Okay, kitten, start talking.  The real dirt this time, no more carnie tricks."

"I don't know what you're talking about," said Liara quickly.

Kaidan looked calmly around the room.  "Why don't we start with names, Mr. Vakari-something?"

"Vakarian," said the man angrily, his accent thicker than normal.  "You hit very hard, Detective."

"And you know where Shepard is."  Kaidan glared at him.

"No, I know who took Shepard.  A man named Santiago.  I do not know where she is."

"Santiago?" said Ashley sharply.  "Vido Santiago?  The smuggler?"

Garrus nodded.  "The same."

"How the hell is he even in this country?  Why is he even in this country?" Ashley demanded.  "What the hell is Shepard into?"

Garrus looked at Liara, who sighed in defeat.  "Fine, your stupid government will find out sooner or later.  Shepard's contact in China has gone missing.  That means the whole of the opium trade to the States is basically up for grabs, unless Shepard finds him, or replaces him.  I got offered a lot of money to make it impossible for her to leave the States.  Santiago saw a chance to get the trade – well, the Mediterranean part, anyway – back under his control."

"By eliminating Shepard," said Kaidan grimly, and Liara nodded.

"Who hired you?" asked Ashley.

"No way, sister," sneered Liara.  "I don't get paid to do your legwork for you."

"With those legs?  I would hope not," snapped Ashley.  "I'm surprised you managed to walk all the way up the stairs without needing a man to carry you."

"What?"

"Not now!" snapped Kaidan.  "Okay, Liara, give me one good reason not to lock you both up overnight."

Liara rattled off an address.

"What's that?"

"The hotel where Santiago is staying."

"You knew that?" asked Garrus.

"I didn't know he had Shepard, idiot!"  Liara sniffed.  "And yes, I knew that.  He wanted to get a private performance."

Garrus growled.  "You did not go."

"Of course not!  Men like Santiago can never keep their hands to themselves."

Kaidan opened a drawer, and searched until he found a small leather wallet.

"What are you doing?" Garrus demanded.

Kaidan flipped open the little book before answering.  "I'm taking your passport, Mr. Vakarian.  If your girlfriend was straight with me, I'll bring it back once I know Shepard is safe."  He tucked the leather wallet into his jacket.

"How dare you!" Liara burst out.  "You can't do that!"

"Oh yes I can," smiled Kaidan.  "Would you like to change your story?"

"It's the right address," she insisted.  "Santiago hasn't moved as far as I know."

"Better hope he left a forwarding address if he did.  Let's go," Kaidan nodded to Ashley.

"Good thing we're taking the regular stairs this time," said Ashley as she followed him out of the room.  "My stockings can't take much more of your idea of fun."


End file.
